Expectations
by WeasleySeeker
Summary: As Harry Potter's daughter and the youngest of the Weasley-Potter clan, Lily Luna has a lot to live up to. Will she crack or flourish from the pressure? —Lily's story, told in a series of drabbles from throughout her life.
1. Spring 2008

_Spring 2008_

Ginny Potter gazed down contentedly at the newborn redhead in her arms. It was a hard labour, worse than either of the boys, but it was worth it. Her daughter was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes on.

But there was one thing wrong.

"We can't call her Luna."

"What?" Harry looked up abruptly from his chair by the bed; he'd been dozing off.

"We can't call her Luna. She doesn't look like a Luna," Ginny insisted, stroking her daughter's vivid red hair.

Harry stood up, examining the baby's face from many different angles. "I suppose you're right," he said reluctantly; it had taken so long to decide on a name in the first place. "What _do_ you want to call her?"

Ginny paused. The answer was so obvious, once you thought of it. "Lily. Luna as the middle name."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked immediately, but his face lit up. "We said you would get to pick the name this time, I mean—"

"Lily Luna," said Ginny firmly. "It's perfect."

He turned his head, trying to hide it, but Ginny was sure that tears had just formed in her husband's eyes. "Thank you. That... that means a lot, Gin," Harry told her, but Ginny waved away his thanks.

"It's fine. It suits her."

"Lily Luna," he said in wonderment. He'd done this twice before, but it didn't detract from the amazement of seeing his new daughter. "She'll have a lot to live up to, won't she?" he observed quietly.

"Yes," Ginny agreed, a hint of sadness in her voice. "But we'll be there for her every step of the way."

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**A/N: I have a lot of headcanon on Lily Luna, but I don't feel like I've written anywhere near enough of her. So here's my attempt to change that. :)**

**I'm thinking there will be around ten drabbles in this, give or take a few. So enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I'm not JKR. Sorry.**


	2. Summer 2012

_Summer 2012_

"James! Al! Wait for me!"

"No way, you have to catch us!" came the jeering voice of Lily's oldest brother. "That's the point of the game."

"That's not fair!" Lily whined, but there was no point: James and Albus were now out of earshot. She was sick of being the youngest. She couldn't run as fast as her brothers, which meant that they were always leaving her out. She wished more than anything that she could be like them, that she could impress them, that they would notice her, but in their eyes she only existed when it was convenient for them - when they needed a favour doing.

She sighed and stopped trying to catch them up. It was hopeless.

"Cheer up, Lils," called fourteen-year-old Teddy, who had come along with them for the walk but considered himself too old to join in with James and Albus's games. He walked a little quicker, leaving Lily's parents behind, and due to his long legs he soon caught up with her. "What's up?"

"Al and James won't let me play. They say I'm too slow," she said sadly.

Teddy laughed. "Just you wait a couple of years and those little legs will grow twice as long. Then you'll easily be able to keep up with them in a race," he assured her. "In fact," he said, bending down to whisper in her ear, "I'll tell you a secret. I bet you'll beat both of them," he told her, making Lily giggle despite herself.

"But I _hate_ waiting," she complained, slipping her hand into Teddy's as they continued walking.

"I know. So do I," Teddy confessed, to Lily's surprise - he was practically a grown-up. Grown-ups were always trying to lecture her about how important it was to wait for things. "But you'll just have to play with me in the meantime," he said, picking her up and spinning her around like he always did. "And I'll let you into another secret. I'm much more fun than your brothers."


	3. Winter 2017

_Winter 2017_

The Burrow was always a crowded place when Lily was there, because at least one other branch of the family always tended to be too - and on Christmas Day it was even worse than usual. Lily was squished into a corner playing a halfhearted game of Exploding Snap with Hugo, the only person who would pay her any attention. Rose and Albus, newly returned from their first term at Hogwarts, were apparently much more interesting conversation partners.

"...and then when I got let out of the Hospital Wing, it was really late and I'd forgotten the password - I had to stay out there all night!" Rose was saying dramatically to Aunt Angelina.

"Seeing the ghosts just appear through the walls as you walk is pretty crazy," Albus was telling Teddy and Victoire on Lily's other side. "I mean, I knew about it before I went, but it's so different seeing it for real."

"I know what you mean," Teddy nodded enthusiastically, and Lily glared at him, though he didn't notice. He'd always made a special effort to include Lily in things in the past, but now Albus was stealing the limelight. Plus, he only seemed to have eyes for Victoire these days.

Lily sighed. Going to Hogwarts seemed to make you part of an exclusive club; one that only she and Hugo were excluded from. And Hugo was just so _boring_. Everyone else was acting as if she wasn't even there, and she yearned for the day when she could finally set foot in Hogwarts and that would change. But it still seemed a long way away.

A harassed-looking Grandma Weasley then bustled into the living room, brushing the flour off her apron. "The turkey will be a while yet, so how about we open a few presents while we wait?" she suggested, reaching for a large brown sack from the corner of the room and starting to withdraw presents. "Here we are - Victoire... Roxy... James... Rosie-Posie... ooh, and Lily, you've been very quiet today - I'd almost forgotten you were there!" she exclaimed as she handed Lily her present.

Lily thanked her grandmother and brutally tore the paper off her package. It was a plastic beaded necklace, pink and sparkly. The kind of thing she would have liked as a five-year-old. She sighed - had nobody noticed her grow up even a bit? It was so frustrating.

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**A/N: The Christmas lights in my city were turned on yesterday, so it's definitely not too early to write this. :P ****Hope you liked it!**


	4. Autumn 2019

_Autumn 2019_

Lily aggressively screwed up her half-finished letter. It seemed that there was no straightforward way to tell her parents that she'd brought shame on the family. That she'd been put in Slytherin.

The Hat told her that she had great capabilities and a thirst to prove herself. "Just like your father." She'd grinned then, sure that she'd achieved what Al hadn't and made it into Gryffindor, wasn't being shoved in Hufflepuff with the likes of him. But she had the shock of her life when it roared, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Trying to find a way to tell your parents?"

The voice made Lily jump violently; she'd thought that there was nobody watching her in this secluded corner of the common room. She turned around to see a boy leaning against the wall behind her and smirking, in that signature Slytherin way. While there wasn't necessarily anything unfriendly about it, it made Lily feel uneasy. He looked far too confident to be a first year.

"I... I might be," she said eventually. This boy was the first person who had bothered to speak to her properly all day, other than her family - but even they had completely blanked her after the Sorting. James looked at her like she'd killed someone when she went over to join her new housemates. And until now, the Slytherins had all been hostile towards her, like she didn't belong in their house.

"Your parents don't have anything to be ashamed of, you know. It's not as if you're suddenly a different person."

Lily surveyed the boy suspiciously. "What would you know?"

He held out his hand. "Connor Finnigan. Second year." Still confused, Lily shook it. She wasn't sure where she knew the name from. "Both of my parents were Gryffindors, too."

"_Oh_." A beacon of hope lit up inside Lily. "And... they didn't, like, disown you or anything?"

"Of course not," Connor said, smirking again, but it wasn't in a nasty way. "Being put in Slytherin was the best thing that ever happened to me. Meant that I didn't have to keep trying to live up to my precious brothers. I'm different; I can be my own person."

That sounded awfully familiar to Lily. It was exactly how she felt about her family. All her life, she'd had this desperate desire to shine; maybe being in Slytherin was her big chance. She could be successful in her own right, without competing against her brothers and cousins. It was like a huge weight off her shoulders.

She smiled at Connor, and as he smiled back, she knew that she'd made her first friend.


End file.
